Chapter 34

  Despite our best efforts, we were never able to defeat Gustav in any of our following mock battles. That’s not to say it was all for naught, however. He did a phenomenal job hammering home the understanding of how great the gulf between us was. The realisation damaged the egos of the little noble shieldbearer trio. Still, for the rest of us, it served as inspiration, evidence that whatever walls we currently faced could be overcome.

  Even so, Gustav seemingly had an unending supply of tricks to call upon. We would counter everything he showed in one fight, only for him to start pulling out entirely new abilities in the next. By the week’s end, we had seen him expertly weave spells of wind, earth, and light elements, as well as employ aura to complement his physical movements.

  Meztili also uncovered the mystery of Gustav's spontaneous spell casting. The movements his sword makes are, in reality, the strokes used to draw spell circles. Somehow, he was able to draw them out of order and disconnected from each other, which flies in the face of what spellcraft lessons have taught me. Meztili’s words explained it best:

  “Imagine writing a sentence, but each stroke of every letter is placed randomly on the page. By the end of it, you would have meaningless scribbles nobody could make sense of.”

  She was unable to figure out the trick to how this works, but she expressed her intent to ask the man in question directly during our travel. She thought it could be useful in my own quest for spellcasting as well.

  We had only one day left before our departure, and I was in the midst of very important pre-mission preparations.

  “Who is that guy?”

  “Shh, he’s one of them IMA kids.”

  “Isn’t that the guy who’s always at the pet shop?”

  “Oh yeah! I heard a rumour that he's shadowed by some kind of demon.”

  “Is that pig carrying a giant fish?”

  The gossiping voices of the townspeople followed me as I slowly made my way to the eastern gate. I was taking Kipper—the soaring barracuda—out of town to the ocean. Since his tank was too large to comfortably carry alone, I had balanced it across Soot’s tusks.

  I don’t know what that talk of demons was about. The only thing following me in the shadows was Vek. He had become an expert at remaining undetected wherever we went, much to Lily’s dismay. She would obsessively check the room whenever we met up, but never succeeded in locating the visceranid. Well, at least, not until Vek found her first.

  But there was no way they were talking about him, right? Vek was a good boy, not a demon. Whatever, let them say what they want, so long as nobody tries to hurt my sweet boy.

  I had officially registered Vek as an animal companion with the IMA, and a general announcement circulated to prevent any unfortunate accidents, but the general public couldn't be expected to remember the giant spider running around was actually an official member of the Black Crown Empire.

  But enough about Vek, I was seeing to Kipper. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t carry a massive fish tank all the way to Farrowgate, but luckily, both Farrowgate and Borderton were right by the sea.

  Through some extremely careful navigating, Soot and I lowered Kipper carefully down to the shoreline and placed him in the ocean. He stayed in the shallows looking at me blankly at first, but as soon as he realised the space available to him, he began darting around at speed.

  A passing osprey dived down to catch its tantalising prey, but when it was still 10m above the surface of the ocean, it was plucked out of the sky and had its neck broken by a razor-sharp mouth.

  This was how the soaring barracuda hunted prey. They had small orifices near their tailfins that stored and released water, propelling them through the air like a water jet. They then unfurled their fins, which doubled as wings, and steered their bodies towards their prey.

  This was why they weren’t considered dangerous among other sea life. If anything, others would always gather around the soaring barracuda for a symbiotic relationship. The barracuda scares off predators, and the fish attracts more prey for the barracuda.

  I chose Kipper for this reason. I had a suspicion that something must have affected the sea life or water around Farrowgate, and a soaring barracuda was perfect for investigating that theory.

  I looked on proudly as Kipper leapt in and out of the water, plucking birds out of the air and tearing them apart underwater. Those who survived the initial attack soon drowned as they were pulled under.

  Ahh, the beauty of nature.

  ***

  I returned to the dorms only to stumble on an odd pairing.

  “Oh, you’re back.”

  My sister greeted me and handed me a mug of coffee.

  “Will our place stop reeking of fish now?”

  The second person in the kitchen called out while preparing some kind of pastry dish.

  “Since when were you two friends?”

  I eyed Lily skeptically, but took the coffee gratefully.

  “She joined my club a couple of weeks ago. She’s got a good eye for business.”

  Rose shrugged.

  The club she was referring to was the art club. Although Rose used it as a vehicle to profit from the students’ work. She would sell paintings, jewellery, and sculptures, then divide the sales between the creator and herself. Everything was a means to obtain more money in her eyes.

  “I wasn’t aware you had any interest in art, Lily.”

  Again, I looked at her with doubt.

  “What? You know I’m all about pleasing the eyes of others, look at me!”

  She fluttered her eyes at me. I felt I deserved a reward for not commanding Vek to jump her in that moment.

  “She’s actually very knowledgeable when it comes to flower arrangements. She’s great at flattering the clientele, too.”

  “Hehe, you could learn a thing or two from your sister, Rex. You should compliment me like that, too!”

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  “Vek, Lily wants to play.”

  Vek dropped from the ceiling silently and engulfed Lily’s torso with his legs.

  She didn’t make a noise, nor did her expression change at all. Maybe she had finally overcome her fear?

  “...Lily?”

  Rose walked back to her when she remained uncharacteristically silent for a little too long.

  “Come here Vekky.”

  Rose gently pried his legs open and let him climb over onto her back. Lily still did not react.

  “...I think she passed out.”

  Rose waved her hand in front of Lily’s face in an attempt to elicit a reaction, to no avail.

  “Nice. I’ll leave you guys to it then. Feed Vek for me, will you?”

  “Sure, I fed Tiara already. Don’t fall for her cries, she already tried to get seconds from Fleur.”

  I waved to acknowledge her words and headed into the training room.

  This wasn’t a part of the building I frequented, but Gustav personally suggested I brush up on my axe techniques. He even paid out of pocket to get me a manual for that exact purpose.

  I thought the Crucible already supplied me with enough practical experience, but it was true that I mostly just swung and hacked away without much technique behind it. The idea of using the axe head to hook limbs and weapons to interrupt my opponent never even occurred to me until I read the manual.

  The training room was outfitted with training dummies, archery targets, sparring weapons of various types, and weights for more conventional exercises.

  I got started, beginning with the dummies to practice a few different moves. Truth be told, I was very confident in my stamina, but there was a clear wall blocking my progress, regardless of how long I persisted.

  “Rex? This is unusual.”

  Another person entered the room.

  “Zachariah?”

  He and I had very little interaction, though from what I had seen of him, I found him to be an honest and upright young man. Truly, the perfect prince.

  “Sticking with the axe? It’s quite the versatile weapon, from what I understand. Unfortunate that so few knights utilise it.”

  "The sword tends to attract most of them as the 'noble' weapon of choice."

  "That's quite true, isn't it? I am no exception to that generalisation myself."

  He grabbed two training swords, but didn’t immediately get to work. Instead, he watched me quietly.

  I tried ignoring him, but having literal royalty analysing your sloppy techniques is a lot more stressful than one might think.

  “Why’d you stop?”

  “It’s a little embarrassing with you watching like that.”

  “Is that so?”

  He walked to the centre of the empty area in the training room and tapped the floor with the ends of his swords.

  “You have already got the movements down, but you won’t get a real feel for it with a static target. Come, I’d like to lend you my time if you will accept.”

  ***

  The resulting fight was… enlightening. Zachariah’s form was flawless, and he displayed skill in various different fighting styles. If not for his birthright, he would make a fantastic instructor.

  He would fight me with one style until I could consistently counter and employ my axe techniques. After that, he would change things up, and we would repeat the process.

  “You should consider using a shield, your free hand is not serving much purpose when you fight. Or you could always use another axe, it would be nice to have a fellow dual-wielder around.”

  “Ah, this axe is special. Normal weapons would get in the way when I shapeshift.”

  We had finished up after hours of relentless sparring sessions and had been making small talk in the bathing room. No, we were not sharing a bath, the washrooms here were similar to those of The Burning Sprite, in other words, needlessly large.

  “Thanks for the help, by the way.”

  “Happy to help, especially for you.”

  “Dude, don’t phrase it like that when we’re naked.”

  “Haha, I just meant that it was beneficial for me too. I wanted to see how the man who defeated my cousin fights.”

  I suspected he would bring that up at some point.

  “And? Did you learn anything from it?”

  “No. Frankly, I have no idea how you managed to pull it off.”

  “Rather blunt of you.”

  “I do not say that to belittle your ability, it is just that Azr—I mean, Axel—is someone who can fight knights on equal footing. I thought you must be the same.”

  I sighed and got ready to leave.

  “I ambushed him and blew myself up to take him down with me. If you’re looking for a way to beat people stronger than you, don’t be so orthodox. Axel already told you this years ago.”

  “So he told you the story? And you’re still friendly with him?”

  “I don’t consider his actions to be wrong. If anything, the world needs more like him to survive.”

  No response came before I exited.

  ***

  The following day began with yet another attempt to ambush me in my sleep from the resident nuisance.

  “Lily.”

  “Good morning, stud.”

  “Put the pie down or I’ll fill your tent with centipedes.”

  She lowered the hand holding a cream-filled pie and laughed nervously.

  “...Please don’t.”

  We were due to leave for Farrowgate early in the day and would need to stop at least once to sleep. My threat was certainly not empty, I was more than confident in my ability to locate some nasty insects to dump on her throughout the night should the fancy take me.

  I sprang out of bed before she could change her mind and briskly moved past her to Meztili’s room.

  “Tilly, time to go!”

  I knocked loudly, but there was no response from within.

  “Want me to check?”

  Lily slinked up behind me.

  “Yeah, leave the pie.”

  She placed it on the floor and slithered into her own shadow, which subsequently crept under Meztili’s door.

  Click.

  The lock was undone, and the door swung open.

  “Come in.”

  Lily invited me as if it were her own room.

  This was my first time seeing a necromancer’s bedroom. It looked like a cross between a macabre sorcerer’s den and a teenage girl’s room. Stuffed toys of soft animals with stitch marks all over them, papers stuck to the walls with all manner of sigils, and a fluffy pink twin-size bed in the centre. That's saying nothing of the bone ornaments dangling from the ceiling.

  “Spooky.”

  Lily commented as she fiddled with a toy resembling a puppy with button eyes and the lower half of a zebra.

  “Meh.”

  She tossed it carelessly and skipped over to Meztili’s bed, where she was still sleeping peacefully.

  As I was placing the toy back in its spot, I realised I should have prioritised stopping Lily.

  Her shadow had stretched back out into the hallway and pulled the cream pie back into her hand, and immediately it found its new home smashed to pieces over Meztili’s face.

  She jumped out of bed with a yelp. It appeared she even slept in those bandages of hers.

  “That’s not funny, Lily.”

  She didn’t seem too upset by the prank, but when she looked at me, she suddenly squealed and dived back into her bed, pulling the covers over her body once more.

  “Get out!”

  Her reaction was rather cute, though not very understandable. She was no more exposed than she ever was, yet she acted like I had walked in on her changing. I suppose, without the robe over the top, I could see her body shape quite well, thanks to the tight wrappings of the bandages. I had to admit it stoked the flames within me a little.

  I mentally smothered those flames, did the gentlemanly thing, and waited for the girls downstairs.